Possible recall

[Stu]

The bit I don't get is on the FJR its a service item but not on the BMW!

Personally I will be taking the shaft out every winter and giving it a good clean up and re-grease

[Steve398]

Mine was checked on the 24k service by my non-dealer mechie - slight rust, cleaned up and greased.

[Casbar]

The problem is, it is not normally the splines that fail, it is the UJ joint. Visual inspection can not tell you if the bearings are going to fail. On a fleet bike, the shaft was checked, greased etc, then failed 100 miles later with a UJ joint bearing snapping. The bike was higher mileage, but it would seem to be absolutely sure, you need to change the shaft and uj joint at a point in time you consider appropriate. The GS and RTp have different gearing to the normal RTs, guess for more low down torque and off road riding. So they are looking for problems with the shaft at the bevel box end not the spline end. On one of ours, they were measuring for excess vibration.

I know a lot worry about the splines having rust on them, but as far as I have read, most if not all failures are not with the spline end, of course, there will always be someone who has had a spline failure rather than a UJ joint failure

If the splines aren't rusted together, it makes changing a shaft a lot easier though

[Wierpig]

There are splines at both ends. The bevel box end is more prone to corrosion as the ingressed water pools at that end.Once the corrosion gets into the splines it seizes the shaft onto the bevel box.Even if you can separate them, the splines have lost metal in the process and will be too loose a fit when reassembled.They will need replacing.
Once corrosion finds its way onto the UJ yoke, the bearing seal is compromised and shortly the shaft is scrap.
This is the reality and BMW are seriously endangering people by not making this a recall on all shaft drive boxers from 2013.

[Casbar]

The shaft that failed on the fleet bike had no corrosion what so ever! The current fix is pretty rubbish, they drill a hole and put in a small rubber valve, that isn't glued in, so they are just being pushed back into the cardican casing. On one of our bikes that was done a week ago, it is missing already so needs replacing, but we will glue the next one in.

[Stu]

So by the sounds of it there is no real way to tell of your UJ's are about to fail?

I have heard of people replacing the UJ's before but they take a bit of work in getting the stock ones out

[Casbar]

That was certainly the view of the independent that did the inspection on the shaft, his advice was to just replace when higher mileages were reached, but like all this, what is the point you change, bit of an unknown. But I am also not advocating that corrosion on the splines is a good thing and on my own bike at some point I will get the shaft splines greased if they are not already. But it really depends on if I decide to keep it I am certainly not worried about the shaft at 11k miles.

[7vwh]

AAE3A7F7-4C0D-492D-8720-7BA9F4E16FE4.jpeg (282.55 KiB) Viewed 1164 times

This is the rubber bung on our RT-P (the image is upside down!)

[Wierpig]

Ive sent 3 emails to customer service in the UK, without reply, asking why the RT, with exactly the same drive train is excluded from the campaign.
Such poor service from a company Ive spent in excess of £100,000 with.
They cant even be bothered to reply.
Im lucky I can strip, inspect and lube my own but there are lots out there woth seized / worn shafts unknown to the owners.

[Casbar]

Our civilian (non RTp) blood bikes have now been called forward for the inspection and the rubber bung mod. When I asked what was different between those bikes and my own RT, the answer was - Blood bikes are now deemed as arduous duty bikes. Hmmm!

[Wierpig]

The aroma of horse shit emanates from BMW yet again.

[Casbar]

2021 1250RT 9k miles just back from shaft check - new shaft fitted

[Steve398]

That was certainly the view of the independent that did the inspection on the shaft, his advice was to just replace when higher mileages were reached, but like all this, what is the point you change, bit of an unknown. But I am also not advocating that corrosion on the splines is a good thing and on my own bike at some point I will get the shaft splines greased if they are not already. But it really depends on if I decide to keep it I am certainly not worried about the shaft at 11k miles.

Are you a bit more worried now Casbar??

[Stu]

2021 1250RT 9k miles just back from shaft check - new shaft fitted

For what reasons do you know?

[Casbar]

Failed the BMW test on the shaft. And am I worried about my own bike, nope, I’ll sell it before it becomes an issue The problem with the shaft check is - we don’t know what the results mean. So they do the test and it fails, they replace the shaft and fit a rubber valve in the shaft tunnel to allow moisture to escape. Will that sort out any issues - nobody knows as it is a one off job, so u will only know when the shaft fails if it has worked or not. One bike, new shaft at 9k and one at 64k neither shaft failed. Have two more to go, will see how they get on. Both 1250s